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07/01/2014

I know that I go on about it a great deal, but if you are going to have a really successful learning environment, then your provision has got to be linked to assessment and broadly levelled. If not, then you don't really create learning spaces, you just create holding spaces.

The environment you set up should change to match the needs of your current cohort. Not just on an annual basis, the change should happen termly in response to the information that you get from your summative assessment.

At the risk of sounding like Miranda's mother, that is what I like to call a Gap and Strength Analysis.

Not only does your Gap and Strength Analysis help you to create an appropriate learning environment, it also helps you to demonstrate how you can achieve high level attainment in Foundation Stage, which as we know, can be tricky!

So, what to do and how to do it...

A Gap and Strength Analysis uses the information that you gain from your summative assessment to show where the greatest areas of need and strength are within your cohort.

You would then make sure that they environment and provision that you put in place directly reflects the needs that you have identified.

Where there are areas of particular strength then you would ensure that you planned explicit and implicit challenge.

If talk or physical development shows up as a need then I would expect to see lots more areas of the environment and resources in place to support that development. There is no point having a 'maths' and 'handwriting' area with no one in it, when that space could be given over to providing more learning opportunities in an area of identified need.

You will fill in your Gap and Strength Analysis three times a year following summative assessment. This will probably be October, December and April.

If you have a constantly changing cohort (like playgroup or day nursery) then you would carry out a Gap and Strength Analysis every three months and 'tweak' your environment in response to any specific need that you have identified in the interim.

What do I assess?

You are assessing children's development against their age related statements in the Prime and Specific areas

What am I looking for?

You want to identify children who are working below, or at risk of working below their age related expectations.

You also want to identify children who are working above their age related expectations

Target Areas

Identify target areas of development where a significant number of children are performing below their age related expectation. The larger the number of children the more prevalent the need in that area.

Make a graph!

I like a graph - it really helps my visual brain. It also really helps anyone who isn't very familiar with interpreting EYFS data make some sense of what you are doing.

On your graph list the areas in order of need. This will be your starting point for organising your environment and creating the beginnings of an attainment audit trail.

Here is an example of a Reception Gap analysis using Autumn 2 summative assessment. In this particular setting, there are no children who are performing above the expected level for their age, therefore this is a pure Gap Analysis

What Next?

Well, once you have identified the areas of need (and challenge if you have any) you need to sit down as a team and talk about how these translate into your environment and the provision that you create.

Some areas like 'People and Communities' can often score highly because young children often have limited knowledge and experience of other people and communities outside of their own. Their knowledge in this area will grow through the experiences that you give them and this takes time.

It is still worth asking the question how you make your children aware of people and communities. Do you have to wait until the 'People That Help Us' topic title comes along, or do you have a really good range of stories, songs, games etc that you use consistently?

One setting I was working with got a very similar result from their Gap Analysis and decided to use some of their space to create a 'Multicultural Area'. This area was full of various multicultural costumes, artifacts an images. The children used the area a lot and the team felt that it was therefore having impact. When we watched and listened to what the children were doing in the area during Continuous Provision, it had very little to do with other cultures and a great deal to do with familiar domestic role play.

When an adult was working in the space, then it was a different story but we need to focus on what the children will do when there is no adult there, as that is when attainment is most at risk.

Shape and Space often comes up as a key area in early Gap Analysis, again that is because it something that needs to be explicitly taught as well experienced. It does not however, give you license to put 2d shapes in the sand and water or just scatter a few around your environment! This is more likely to put children off than engage them. There aren't many children who get excited about the prospect of digging up a triangle! Even when they do, how does that experience impact on their learning? DON'T DO IT! (The same goes for burying words in the sand - but that is a whole different rant!).

If Shape and Space does come up you might want to think about how you can get more exciting and interactive shape into your environment. This can be done through things like puzzles, jigsaws, construction, outdoor and also cutting your snack into shapes or serving it on different shaped plates. You can be as creative as you like as long as the children are going to engage with your ideas and what you do is actually going to have an impact.

For every need identified, you can fill in something like this. This sheet will identify the term you are carrying out the analysis as well as the area of need/challenge that you thinking about.

The 'Area that promotes facilitation' are areas of your environment that will help you to deliver the need you have identified.

'Possible Resources' is just that. Possible resources that you might want to add to your Continuous Provision in that area of the environment to help you to tackle your need.

You then need to swap, change and enhance your space to match all of the work that you have just done. Take time to stand back and watch not only where your children go during Continuous Provision, but what they do when they get there. Yes, your Maths area is full of children, but are they doing Maths? I would hazard a guess from experience that they are probably engaging in some good old domestic role play.

The last thing I would do is to create a SIMPLE overview document that outlines what your data has told you in each area and what you have done about it.

So, to create your Gap and Strength Analysis you will have...

Collected lots of lovely data that shows children's attainment in the Prime and Specific Areas against age related criteria

Identified the areas where there is the greatest need for support and challenge

Created a graph to illustrate those needs

Discussed how the need can be translated into direct teaching and opportunities within Continuous Provision

Evaluated how you can change your current environment to support the solutions that you have come up with.

For each area of need you will have recorded what you have added to your provision to support children's learning and development and how it might be used.

Finally you will have created a Gap and Strength Analysis overview that explains all of the above in BRIEF!

Each term (or summative assessment) you carry out the same process. Ideally your gaps should shrink and even change as the year progresses.

If your children are performing below their age related expectation, it is important to record what age band they are starting in. When you come to do your next analysis, it can appear that they haven't moved because they will still be below expectation, but they could well have moved in terms of their attainment, they are just not at expected level...yet!

This document is really handy to show why you are doing what you are doing and also provides a starting point for anyone who is coming to look at attainment, provision and practice in your setting. It helps to join up the dots!

03/12/2012

Just thought you might like to share some of the sorts of practice that I have been looking at over the past couple of weeks. Last week I popped to Coventry to work with Nicki and the Early Years team at Joseph Cash Primary school.

The school has 60 Reception children who work in one open plan space (with a small work room next to the loos!) and a Nursery class who have their own space but share an outside area.

I was working with Nicki on the further implementation of objective led planning and looking at their current systems for recording all of their other bits of planning - plus a bit of outdoor evaluation thrown in for good measure.

There were lots of displays that were linked to teaching and learning. They had been annotated really well so that it was clear to see engagement, planning and purpose through what was on the wall.

The work for this display was produced as a result of children working on their physical dexterity during their daily intervention.

it went up the wall and across the ceiling, there was so much of it. Although the higher the display the less likely the children are to engage with it, I did come across a group of children who were lying on the floor looking up at the ceiling and picking out animal shapes that they could see in the squiggles. They were there for a while and found lots!

Some nice illustrations of process

and annotations. I also really liked these as another way of creating a number line.

I imagine you would get a lot of volunteers if they knew that they were going to go and photocopy their hands! Just make sure you do it when the Secretary is out of the office!

Within the provision Nicki has been looking at leveling in response to assessment so, there were three different types of construction available

not to mention the large scale construction on the carpet.

When you have planned for different levels within an area and all of the adults working in your space know what the differentiation is, when they are moving through your space it is easy for them to support children and redirect them if they are using inappropriate resources.

The Reception day has two long sessions of Continuous Provision punctuated by focused teaching in groups and a physical intervention. The children are also grouped for this activity. On the day I visited the groups were:

Making marks on a large scale

Practising early cutting skills by snipping/fringing with appropriate scissors

Picking up pompoms with pegs (even the pegs are differentiated, some being harder to squeeze than others)

and tying tricky knots.

Outside of the adult directed activities there was plenty to explore and discover in the environment, especially in the aptly name 'Hmmmm, this looks interesting' area where the children were deconstructing old computers and key boards with great interest.

It was evident from the walls that observations and children's interests were key to shaping the environment and the planning.

Alongside some dough in the malleable materials area there was a nice big tray of PVA which was great for supporting gross motor movement and pattern making as well as more fine motor dexterity and mark making.

The best thing about a tray of PVA is that when your hands are covered you can clap them together and make snow. As you clap, little strands of PVA float up into the air and then come down again like stringy snow. If you bang a flat hand on the tray repeatedly you get the same effect, it is just noisier!

As part of her weekly planning process Nicki has an A4 sheet which is split into boxes. Each box has the title of an area of the provision. Nicki records in the box any areas that have been enhanced and says why. This was a really useful tool for me when I was looking at the provision and a great record for the setting of how they are responding to the needs and interests of children. With a relatively small 'tweak' this overview could also show which areas had a skill enhancement and how that skill was split into high, mid and low level.

Even though, like everyone, Nicki is very much on a journey of improvement there was lots of great examples of quality learning for us to celebrate before we got down to planning ways forward. I really enjoyed my day Nicki, thank you for inviting me.

01/11/2012

The Early Years guidance is very clear that there needs to be a good mix of adult directed teaching and child initiated learning in your setting. What it is not very clear on is how much of each there should be.

The reason for that is there is no real definitive answer, as with a great deal of Early Years practice it depends on a range of other factors.

Before you even begin to discuss percentages and ratios, the first thing you need to do is to define what you mean and understand by the terms 'adult directed' and 'child initiated'. I often find that these definitions can be tricky to clarify within a team and that practitioners individual interpretations can differ considerably.

The next thing I would do would be to work out how you think your direct teaching is going to work because that is the easier bit.

Is it going to be every day? If so, how many times?

Are you going to teach whole class or group by ability?

Which members of the team will be planning and which will be delivering?

If you are following a programme like Letters and Sounds or Read, Write Inc. how are you going to fit those in?

So, you might decide that you are going to have 3 sessions of direct teaching each day. Theses will be at the beginning or the end of a session as you don't want to compromise the children's opportunities for sustained shared thinking, exploration and deep level learning.

Great. That is that sorted! Problem is what do you do when the children leave you after the direct teach?

Well you have a couple of options. Once you have finished the input then you will say 'red group you stay with me and the rest of you...go and get busy!' Shame for red group having to do more 'work' while everyone else gets to go and 'play'. Still I am sure that they will give you maximum engagement, after all who wouldn't rather count multi link as opposed to play in the water?!

Once 'red group' have finished, you have the eternal dilemma of what you do next. Most people opt for developing a common condition known as 'tambourine elbow'. Common in Early Years practitioners and members of the Salvation Army. It occurs from excessive shaking of the tambourine!

So, red group have finished and while their seats are still warm you reach for the tambourine and shake it. Everything (well, nearly everything) stops. All the creativity, all of the sustained shared thinking, problem solving, deep level learning, imaginative play, everything! You then proceed with the 'I am looking for blue group mantra'. Now depending on the genetic make up of blue group, this could take some time.

After 5 minutes you have managed to coral 4 of the 6 children, but 2 are still AWOL. Outside on the bikes or making guns. Telling them that if they don't come in now they will never go out again, probably does nothing for their levels of engagement - but at least you have managed to rally blue group, safe in the knowledge that in approximately 15 minutes the tambourine will come out again and the herding of green group will begin!

I don't think anyone would argue against the fact that there needs to be some direct teaching in Early Years. Maybe with my idealist head on I would argue that every aspect of the Early Years Foundation Stage can be taught through quality play based learning, but with my realist head on I know that in the majority of settings that type of learning just isn't practical and nor does that style of learning fit in with the way most settings operate.

My issue with grouping children for Literacy, Mathematics and then 'topic', is that the groups are too broad. At this stage of children's development they can excel and need support with different aspects of the same subject area. So I might be a brilliant talker but not such an adept mark maker yet I will be in the same Literacy group for both. I might be fantastic at shape but not so great with numbers but I will be in the same mathematics group for both.

I know what some of you are thinking...How could you possibly have a different group for each aspect of each subject area that you teach? The answer for me is...don't have groups.

When I say don't group your children, what I mean is that you would group them in the aspect of the subject that you were planning to teach. Then (and this is the good bit) you take the next steps to the children not bring the children to you.

So... You might do a direct phonics, literacy and mathematics teaching session every day.

You would always place these at the beginning or end of a continuous provision session. You might ability group the children or teach them whole class.

At the end of this direct teaching session your children all go into Continuous Provision.

WARNING - When I say Continuous Provision I of course mean provision that is linked to assessment, leveled and dressed for attainment. NOT just places to play.

When the children are in CP the adults will go into that play not only to look for opportunities for assessment and observation, support children's play and discovery but also to teach, delivering an objective that had been identified by assessment as a need and has then been broken down into next steps for each ability group.

This Objective Led planning might be linked to the direct teaching sessions or it might be linked to any other aspect of the Early Years Foundation Stage that your assessment and observation has identified as a need.

This planning for adults in CP would last for a week.

During that week the adult (or adults) responsible for that objective would try to deliver it to all of the children at least once through play

They would probably not have a planned activity that they took around the setting. Instead they would look for opportunities to to deliver the next steps objectives through what was engaging the children most.

If a child you were working with didn't understand or achieve the objective then you could revisit it a number of times in a number of different areas across the week.

By the same token if a child clearly showed that they were beyond the objective that you had set for them then you could revise that objective and deliver it to them again in a different play situation.

How do you plan for it?

For your direct teaching sessions you would differentiate your objective over 3 broad levels or more and direct your questioning to children based on their ability level.

For Objective Led planning you decide on which aspect of a subject you were going to focus on. It could be calculations, talk, upper body movement, pencil grip, ability to independently access the painting area. Anything that has been identified by assessment, observation or curriculum coverage as a need.

First you group your children by their ability within this aspect.

Next, on your planning sheet, you make a statement of current attainment under each group of children. This is an important stage in the planning process because it crystallises your thoughts about what you think these children are capable ot and how you know it. It also lets the whole team know what you are thinking

Then you make a 'next steps' statement of attainment for each group. This is what you are going to take with you into the play and deliver.

If you go into play and you find a group of children of mixed ability, there is no need to syphon them off by their ability level, you just differentiate what you ask them guided by your 'next steps' statements on your planning sheet.

I have found that any more than 3 objectives led planning sheets in any one setting becomes hard to manage and track. In larger settings adults often double up on one ojective and just present it in different ways.

Lindsay at Dee Point Primary has been trialling Objective Led planning with her two form entry team.

Here is an example from the beginning of the year. The objective was centred around the children's independent use of paint.

The next step for each group is split into 2 smaller steps, hence the numbering nest to the children's names.

These planning sheets were on clip boards to make it easy for the adults to pick them up and put them down.

Where I would usually have a column for 'evidence' Lindsay has put in an example of an activity starter, just to give her team some support with this type of planning until they got their heads around it!

Any extra assessments and observations were written on the back of the sheet or on a seperate sheet.

Here is an example of a different objective with assessments and observations attached

Of course there is no right or wrong planning format for this style of teaching as long as all of the essential elements are there.

Here is a n A3 wall mounted version of Objective Led Planning done by Susan from St Augustines that we were trialling before the summer break

The focus here was writing. Once this sheet had been completed then a member of the team would look for writing opportunities in the children's play and then encourage the children to access their 'next steps' target.

Joanne and her team at Chester Blue Coat Primary are also using this form of adult directed and then Objective Led planning to great effect. They started the process in their setting by every adult having the same objective. This was done so that everyone in the team could have a shared experience of how the system works. Once everyone is comfortable with what they need to do then you would move to different adults having different objectives. Here is Joanne's planning

Joanne had some lovely examples of how you can translate this sort of planning and teaching into display which had been created by her and the Reception team. (As this post is becoming a very long one, I will 'show and tell' those at a later date!')

I also popped into Halton Lodge to see how Ruth and her new intake were getting along. Again lots to share later from that visit, including their new 'Infinite Playgrounds' outdoor area. But, this is the objective led planning that she was using.

So, you might happen across a group of mixed ability children setting up an ice cream shop in the role play (this happened to me in Durham). If they were engaged in some amazing play or learning you would forget your Objective Led planning sheet and observe/assess/support what was going on.

If their play is fairly low level and non challenging (which it often can be) then you would go in, play alongside and then introduce the need for some kind of writing. A menu, a sign, a brochure, a website...whatever. Once you have engendered some enthusiasm you match your resources and your expectations to the ability of the children and the next steps objectives.

You do NOT turn it into a 'red group' table top session! You are going for high level engagement so you need to keep it relevant to their play and not hijack their play with your planning agenda.

If it feels like it is going that way then drop it and pick it up again at another time in another place.

It really is THE most effective way of teaching within the principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage and more than that, it allows you to be creative, have some fun and really 'teach' rather than just 'deliver'.

Give it a try! If you have got any questions, feedback or ideas, then post a comment and we can all share in each others experiences.

10/10/2012

Have had the great pleasure of working with lots of lovely settings over the last couple of weeks, with two in particular focussing on the development of skills in Continuous Provision and objective led planning.

Last week I made a visit to Dee Point Primary School to work with the very lovely Lindsay and her team. Lindsay is the new Early Years Coordinator a this 2 form entry primary and manages the Early Years team which includes Nursery and Reception.

Lindsay and I have worked together before she went to Dee Point and talked lots about objective led planning and how it works so, when she started her new role she was keen to put her ideas into practice.

My visit was to see how it was going, evaluate impact and help Lindsay iron out any creases. I think I managed all of that as well as giving the entire team a headache - which is an achievement in itself!

I really don't get the faces on a paper plate frenzy that seems to occur every September, especially when there are 30 of them all stuck on the wall, all looking exactly the same. What is the purpose behind them? What skills are they teaching children? Where is the individuality?

Anyway, I have to say that I LOVED Lindsay's point of entry display. Not just because of the individuality that was evident, but because of the fact that it had clear links to assessment, physical development and attainment. Not to mention the fact that it looked FAB!

All of the display boards were full of it. It is quite hard to capture the impact in one photo.

The assessment focus that had generated the images for the display was around children's grip and fine and gross motor movement.

Not only could you see the stages of development in the size and content of the drawings themselves, but the comments and photographs that had been added gave the pictures context and showed that the staff were clear about next steps development.

You can see from the photographs that both the indoor nd the outdoor environment was used to get high level engagement and also a variety of sizes of paper and types of drawing marterials were matched to children's gross or fine motor dexterity.

The fact that the photographs had been printed in black and white was a nice touch and helped give the display real impact.

I was then able to go and see if I could match the next steps identified by the display in the provision. I am very pleased to report that I could!

Liked this idea for giving a common or garden pencil some real grip

It is pipe insulation and insulating tape (both available from any good DIY store).

These pens have a great moulded rubber grip on the front. Apparently they are in the sale at Staples, so if you want some, you will have to hurry before they sell out!

The development of gross motor and fine motor skills was not restricted to the mark making spaces it was also clearly evident in the Malleable Materials Area, Paint Area, Workshop, Construction and Outdoor. It made tracking evidence of assessment and attainment very easy.

Yesterday I was back in Coventry. I spent the morning training with my Early Fresh Eyes focus group.

(Fresh Eyes was started up by like minded Head teachers in Coventry who wanted to have more control over CPD for their schools. Any school can buy into the service and they pool the funds together, identify common areas of need and then provide bespoke training that is very need specific.

I have been asked to deliver training for the Early Fresh Eyes group. The Fresh Eyes initiative has always been very popular with around 70 Early Years Coordinators attending each training session. This number is now growing fast as Heads from other Local Authorities are buying into the Fresh Eyes training packages that are relevant for their staff).

Then in the afternoon I went to St Thomas More RC Primary to re-visit Claire and her team. You may remember Claire as the lovely teacher 'in a lemon cardie' from this previous blog post.

Well, today she was in a pink cardie, with wellies to match! Claire is the Early Years coordinator of a 2 form entry Reception and a Nursery. Much like Dee Point, the children and the staff in Reception share the space. This means that the CP has to support the learning of all children, be enhanced by skill development and dressed for interest and engagement.

Claire and her team have clearly worked their socks off over the summer because they had transformed their space. Not only was the environment clearly linked to their point of entry assessment but key areas had a weekly skill enhancement and differentiation.

This is like a huge working wall which will continually change in response to children's interests and experiences. The photographs show children engaged in activities, the speech bubbles record how the children were able to articulate their learning or interest, the cloud is a practitioner judgement a post it will be added to the bottom of the cloud to show next steps.

These will be transferred directly into children's learning journeys when they come down.

Claire has planned for skill differentiation in areas, but her Head (Mary) asked that this differentiation be displayed so that adults working in the setting were able to keep track and also when Mary came in to do any monitoring (or just to play), she could easily track attainment and see how the system was working.

Sorry about the rubbish photos Claire. I was trying to make miniature books with a group of girls and take photos at the same time!

These are positioned way above head height so that they don't get into the children's immediate line of vision.

They are there to encourage children to develop skills. They are not the same as the Learning Objectives that will be taught during direct teaching time.

The resources that are in the CP should then reflect the skills listed

The resources should be 'dressed' for interest to encourage the 'target' children to use them.

Elsewhere in Claire's CP there were these bobbins that had been dressed for interest to develop the skill of pincer grip and wrist pivot. Wonder what the children who needed to develop this skill got excited about?!

These sheets were used to develop higher level cutting skills - again, dressed for interest.

Like at Dee Point the children at St Thomas More were engaged, active and purposeful in their learning. Activities were fun and had been planned around the things that motivate children.

The environment was matched to assessment. The Continuous Provision was also matched to assessment and further strengthened with skill development.

The adults delivered a mixture of direct teaching and objective led teaching through continuous provision which was producing some brilliant results even this early in the school year.

In my next post I will unpick those teaching strategies further and share some ideas for what objective led planning might look like on paper and in practice.

I think both Claire and Lindsay would tell you they have lots they still want to work on and they by no means feel that they have got it all sorted, but from what I saw they are well on the way. It was an impressive start to the year - and not a paper plate in sight!

15/07/2012

I had a week in Hampshire last week finishing off the first Leading Foundation Stage Practitioner project with Jodie, Tim, Helen and Amey. They are all doing some really brilliant stuff. I will post some of what they are doing soon, but before I do, I thought you might be interested in this.

It is a FREE assessment app by Orbit. Not only can you record live events and link them to assessment you can also share your ongoing assessments with parents and carers using a link.

I have not used it or seen it used, but have been sent the link by several people since my last post, all of whom recommend it - so thought it would be worth a look.

How does Orbit work?

Orbit is a secure website, which can also be accessed through Orbit iPhone and iPad apps. All data is held securely in our Cloud and can only be accessed through the website and apps by registered and authorized users.

What equipment do I need to use Orbit?

You can access the Orbit website from any internet-enabled computer, laptop or mobile device. Orbit also has apps for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, which can be downloaded free of charge from Apple's App Store.

Why have you made Orbit available free of charge?

We want Orbit to be an inclusive website available to everyone who has an interest in sharing information for the benefit of children. By charging users to access our website and apps, we'd immediately create a barrier preventing some people from being able to benefit from Orbit—so we decided not to do that.

How are you able to provide Orbit free of charge?

We decided that the best way of covering our costs whilst keeping Orbit free of charge for everyone, is to use paid advertising within the Orbit Family website and app. There will never be any advertising within the Orbit Early Years software, but Orbit Family contains some discrete and useful advertising—and this allows us to make Orbit available to both providers and parents free of charge.

Just register yourself and your early years provider with Orbit then you can begin to use it. It's that simple.

Are there any setup costs?

None whatsoever—it's really easy for you to register your provider. Equally, there's no support or other ongoing charges and we don't plan to introduce any. Orbit is entirely free of charge.

Are there any training costs?

Not a penny—we provide you with access to our Awareness and Training pack when you register your provider with Orbit. The website and apps are simple to use, so there's no need for extensive training.

When is information shared with parents?

As you collect observations and link them to children, they are saved in Orbit. You can then undertake an Assessment against each observation, or choose to save it to the child's Album. Information is only shared with parents when the assessment has been completed, or the observation has been saved to a child's Album.

Do we have to invite parents to link to their children in Orbit?

Although one of the key benefits of Orbit is its ability to connect providers and parents more effectively, providers can use it without inviting parents to link to their children's records.

Can we print a child's summary from Orbit?

One of the benefits of Orbit is that it helps to reduce the amount of paper that early years providers need to use—reducing both the costs and carbon footprint of education. However, we appreciate that some providers and parents might wish to have a paper record of their children's achievements. Each child's record can be output as a PDF document.

How do I link with my child's early years record?

If your child's provider is using Orbit Early Years, then they can send you an invitation to link to them in Orbit. When you receive the invitation, just follow the instructions and you'll be able to link to your child and contribute to their education through Orbit Family.

As always, let me know what you think and if you have any other bright ideas, send them over!

08/07/2012

Now I know that not everyone in Early Years has got an iPhone or and iPad but there are a growing number of setting that I work in where the staff have been given one for teaching and assessment and they are a really useful tool.

They not only create high level interest and engagement from children there are LOADS of appropriate apps and games that you can use to actually impact on teaching and learning rather than 'just playing' (not that 'just playing' is always a bad thing!)

Here an iPad is being used for some phonic group work.

Don't worry, the grip has been duly noted and acted upon!

Even the 'pinkness' of the iPad cover wasn't putting anyone off. Such is the lure of 'the pad'!

Here it is being used as an inspiration to get some of the more reluctant mark makers to write.

But the iPad in Early Years is not just about the games. You have got the ability to take photographs on it ans video which is invaluable for your ongoing observations and assessment.

When I was last visiting Halton Lodge Primary Ruth was talking about an app for assessment which looked like it had lots of potential.

The app is by 2Simple and it is called 2 Build a Profile EYFS. It allows you to log children's achievements against the EYFS profile. Every child has an individual portfolio of achievements. Take photos for evidence, then tag them with children's names and Foundation Stage achievements.

So basically, you take a photo of what is going on - either individual or group. The app brings up a 'virtual' post it note that allows you to record an observation. Then it brings up Development Matters so that you can match your observation to statement or statements. You can then save it all in a folder for each individual child. You can also produce reports that contain statements of attainment plus photographic evidence.

At the moment it has both the old and the new Development Matters statements to choose from.

Here is a quick look at what 2Simple say about it.

1.Home Screen

This is where the experiences are listed.

To record your first experience, click the camera icon.

TIP: If you want to use a photo from your photo gallery, click the “cancel” button after clicking the camera icon. You can the select from the gallery on your device.

2.The experience screen

Once you’ve taken your photo, you need to add some detail on the experience screen.

Add some notes on the post-it note

Click the ‘Add learners’ button to specify which learners were went through the experience (Step 3)

Click the ‘Add objective’s button to indicate which objectives were met by the experience. (Step 4)

3. Choose learners

Select the learners who were present during the experience. New users will not have any learners on this page. They will need to add the by clicking the edit button.

Click the learners who were present (or create some new learners), then click close.

4. Choose Objectives

Select the objectives that are met by the experience. You can move up and down through the curriculum framework sections with the ‘<<up’ button.

Click on the objectives, then click close.

5. The experience screen

The experience will start to look like this when you have tagged it with learners and objectives.

Click ‘close’

6. Back to The home screen

The experience you’ve just created will appear on the home screen.

You can now continue to build up experiences in the same way, as in step 1.

7. Email the Report

It is important to be able to access the captured information elsewhere. To do this, you can have the experience report emailed to you.

Click the mail icon at the bottom right to email the evidence report to yourself.

Enter your email address and click ‘continue’

8. The report

The report will arrive in your inbox in PDF format. It will contain the photos, notes, learner and objective details.

TIP: The reports can be encrypted for maximum security. This is done on the settings screen.

9. Changing the dates

Clicking the dates on the post-it note will let you change the date filters.The home screen will only show experiences that happened between the selected dates.

Also, the emailed report will only show experiences that happened between the selected dates.

10. Changing the learner

Clicking on the “My class” post-it on the home screen will open this classes and learners screen.

There will only be one class on this screen, called “My class”.

Click on the single learner icon to open the learner selection screen.

11. Learner selection

Clicking on a learner will let you filter the experiences on the home screen, to just show those that have been experienced by a particular learner.

Click on Bily Bottomleyto start the filter

12 Filtered home screen

The home screen is now just showing Billy Bottomley’s experiences.

You can clickthe email icon to create an email that just includes Billy’s experiences.

13 Security

The app makes use of very strong security features to ensure that your data is safe.

Enter a PIN on the settings screen. This will PIN-protect the app and the emailed reports.

TIP: Entering the incrrect PIN 5 times will lock the app. The app can be unlocked by contacting 2Simple.

It strikes me as one of those apps that will cause a bit of brain ache at the beginning until you become familiar with how it works and then will become much easier.

You can download it from the App Store on your iPhone or iPad

It is free for the first 30 days then there is a charge of £99+VAT for a single user or £299+VAT for a site licence.

I downloaded the trial onto my iPad and had a play with it, but creating EYFS assessment with a photograph of your moody 12 year old son in your lounge is not the same as using it in a setting with 30 or more children!

If you try it, let me know how you get on. If you have already got it and are using it, let me know how it is working for you. I will of course post any more info that I get.

01/07/2012

With objective led planning you would still group the children by ability based on assessment. Rather than having 'red group', 'blue group' etc for CLLD, PSRN etc. It allows you to group your children by their specific need in each area of learning. So, children who need more support in talk development and less in fine motor can get just that, rather than being in one ability group for both.

Once you have decided on your teaching focus you group your children in relation to their performance within that area

For each group of children you would make a statement of their current performance in that area 'where they are now'.

Then you plan a 'next step' for each group.

It is the next step that you then take into the children's play. I would not call groups of children to me. The success of objective led planning is based on the fact that you go to them.

When you go and play alongside children you get high levels of engagement.

If you come across a group of children of mixed ability - which you will, because children don't tend to play in ability groups! You just differentiate your questioning to suit the next steps objectives for the ability group of the child you are working with.

If I know that I have got a group of children who have a particular interest in something like Ben 10 then I might create a 'starter activity' that I know is going to grab their interest.

Once they have visited my activity and I have fulfilled my teaching objective then I wouldn't start calling other children over. The activity has fulfilled it's purpose in attracting the children that I was targeting. I would now take my objectives into other children's play.

How it can work...

The teacher

In this Reception setting there is a teacher and a teaching assistant.

The teacher has a writing focus for her objective led planning.

She is going to get the children to write using their knowledge of phonics.

She has grouped all of the children by their phonic knowledge and given each group a 'next steps' statement.

She has not planned an activity.

This is what her planning could look like.

The T.A

The T.A had got a PSRN focus for her objective led planning

She is working on recognition of 1 digit and 2 digit numbers

She wants the children to recognise, name and order numbers

She has planned a 'starter' activity.

Once interest has dwindled in her activity she will leave it and take the objectives into the environment to target groups and individual children.

What we are looking at in this photo is the TA who has whipped out a Tesco bingo set. She has not said that specific children have to come and work with her. She has used the lure of Tesco bingo to get their interest and it worked. There were too many children interested to start with! The adult could have created differentiated bingo cards that would correspond to the next steps objectives that had been planned or would differentiate her questioning depending on the individual children she was working with.

Notice behind the bingo session there are 2 boys engaging in a bit of deconstructed role play. They have chosen to be pirates and have a small pirate chest full of gold coins which they are hiding in the cave that they have created.

The teacher (in lovely lemon cardi) observes the boys in play and does not 'steam roller' in - clip board in hand, but instead rolls out HUGE sheet of paper onto the floor. This in itself gets the interest of other children within close proximity.

She then asks the role playing boys what is happening in their play. They are keen to tell her and she begins to draw parts of it out, creating a visual 'map' of their play.

She then models labelling her drawings. All of the time she is explaining to the children who have gathered what she is doing a then encouraging them to join in.

Lots do and begin to move between the role play and the paper, playing and then mapping their play. The teacher is supporting their learning on lots of levels but also fulfilling her writing objective differentiated to the ability level of the child she is working with.

The play takes another interesting shift when the 'map' of the role play actually becomes the source of play with the introduction of small world characters.

The play is now taking place in two places at once. A bit like a live game of Dungeons and Dragons!

The teacher ended up staying with this activity for a long time as there was lots of opportunity to meet her objectives with a variety of children as well as support them in other areas of their learning and complete a couple of observations!

The T.A on the other hand has worked with the first lot of 'bingo' children and then had enough interest to work with a second batch. Now she has moved into the environment with her objectives leaving the bingo on the table...

Where it is being used by children as part of their continuous provision.

One of the many advantages of this system of planning and teaching is that if I had a child in my bingo group that wasn't able to recognise and name numbers, then I could find them later in the house and count spoons, then in the garage and count cars, then in the workshop and count pom-poms.

Because I am doing it through their play I get high level engagement and they don't even know that I am doing it!

Honestly, you need to try it!

Alistair

Thanks to Susan at St Augustine's Catholic Primary for the planning photos and Claire at St Thomas More Catholic Primary for the practice photos.

20/06/2012

I was really chuffed that Jenni took the time to drop me a quick email to tell me that she had tried the recipe for dinosaur eggs that I had posted. It sounded like they had such a good time, I asked her to write me a post all about it....

I was so pleased that Alistair asked me to write about the fantastic dinosaur experience we recently had at our nursery – all thanks to ABC DOES!

I logged on to ABC DOES, as usual, just to see what was happening. There it was, a recipe for dinosaur eggs – yippee, just what I needed to spice up our ‘theme’ – All creatures great and small!

Alongside our ‘theme’ we also had three key texts to cover, the most exciting of which was the fab ‘Tom and the Island of dinosaurs’ by Ian Beck. This book provides many PSED/CLLD/KUW and problem solving opportunities – plus a strong female lead to boot!

Next came a surreal trip to my local Costa Coffee to get the used coffee grounds. The staff were kind, but did back away a little when I started blathering on about making dinosaur eggs – strange looks all round.

The eggs were easy to make and the house smelled great! I think I overcooked mine a little – they were a bit too hard inside – next time I will bake them for less time.

Go on, guess what I am!

Dinosaur mania is rife at our nursery on any given day and they are always somewhere to be found – in the sand, water, play dough, outside – we don’t mind where!

Whilst observing the children, I noticed that quite a few of them, both genders, would, on arrival at nursery, head straight to the dinosaurs – then come to report to the adults that ‘the dinosaurs are still there’. This was just what I needed to get things moving!

The next day found me, at 7.30 a.m., dipping tiny dinosaur feet into brown paint, to create a trail of prints towards the door – watched by a bemused caretaker with a twitchy mop! Our dinosaurs were safely hidden away – although they did leave a group photo in case of pining.

All nursery adults were primed to go into full-on, ‘O.T.T’ acting mode once some poor child said ‘the dinosaurs have gone!’

Goodness knows what the children thought, watching four women of a certain age going ape over some plastic toys. Everyone won an ‘oscar’ for realistic reactions – but more importantly, the children were hooked! We also knew who to get on board, those children who ‘go for it’!

We searched high and low but not a dinosaur in sight. But, hark, what could be in that envelope handily stuck onto the interactive whiteboard? ‘A pretend letter’ piped up a little voice – ooh such cynicism so young.

The ‘real’ letter (!) told the children that the dinosaurs had gone to help some boy on an island – whatever that was. This led to lots of KUW discussions about what an island was and wasn’t, and we had some unexpected experts: yafta av a boat / no roads to it / gotta fly to it.

Next day a parcel arrived for the children – a book – ‘Tom and the island of dinosaurs’ – sent by the dinosaurs to let the children know what was going on. The children were enthralled by the story, as were the two senior management members in observing me that morning – so absorbed that they wrote down very little!

The story provides problem solving opportunities. I asked the children to think about how the dinosaurs could get off the island – stony silence at first, faces looking at me as if to say ‘we are only 3 and 4 you know’!

Once I said ‘tell your friend next to you’, they began to talk – granted not all of the talk was about dinosaurs – ‘I need a wee’ etc – BUT, they were talking and the staff praised all their fantastic ideas.

They came up with really good ideas: get a rescue helicopter / swim away / get a boat / some dinosaurs can fly! I won’t spoil the ending for you – do read it though – it’s a brilliant book!

From this we got the following, child initiated work: writing letters to the dinosaurs – putting them in a bottle – like in the story / huge paintings and models of dinosaurs and volcanoes / playdough dinosaurs to fill the empty shelf (sob).

Dinky the dinosaur – as he was christened during phonics!

The children were really hooked and dinosaur talk dominated every nursery session, highest engagement levels ever I have ever seen – from all children.

Dominik’s volcano – great language development opportunities too.

Our school has a Family Involvement Programme and every term, each class invites family members in for a special day / event. There was no doubt about what we should do – Dinosaur day! This is where the eggs came to the fore.

Dinosaur day arrived and there was a fantastic turn out – over 20 adults per session a dad too) – far more than for our ‘Come and learn the jolly phonics actions’ workshop – can’t think why!

Off we go!

We had a range of activities for everyone to dip into as they wished. The main focus, though, was egg hunting! Just in time, the dinosaurs wrote us another letter to say that they had hidden something in our garden and left clues to help us find these items. What could be hidden? Along with the letter were some written and photo clues. Off everyone went, in great excitement. What they actually found was our dinosaurs – they’re back shouted the children excitedly.

The two final clues led to the eggs – wow, how excited were we now! The parents were brilliant – totally up for it! We then performed our dinosaur songs and rhymes to make them feel at home.

We found one!

What next?

We now had 3 eggs to look after – what did we need to do? Then we remembered how we had recently seen some other eggs in school, in Year 2. They might be able to help. Two ‘eggsperts’ were dispatched to tell us what to do – make a nest / don’t keep touching the eggs / no loud noises.

Guidelines were written up and stuck next to the nest. The eggs were left overnight.

I had bought a set of baby dinosaurs to match our original set – who were now back on their shelf and being guarded by some very stern-looking 3 year olds.

The children checked the eggs next day at drop off time, so parents could join in too. Much joy as the children found the ‘babies’, then matched baby and mum!

The work continued to pour out of the children – result!

One boy was so enthralled he wanted to have an egg of his own – so I sent home an egg and a baby dinosaur. He was thrilled to bits when he came back after the holiday – proudly showing me his baby!

I am always inspired by what I read on ABC DOES, (the new book is brill too!). I am really glad I made those eggs and thrilled by the learning journey they provided.

Try it – your children will thank you!

Jenni McDonough Nursery Teacher

Jenni McDonough, currently working in Bradford.

Been teaching ‘yonks’ but still love it to bits. Done all sorts!

During my career I have taught all ages from 3 to 16, also been a Deputy Head, had two Headships, had SENCO role for many years too. Mostly taught in Yorkshire, but also worked in Sweden, in the International School – teaching reception – a lot of children left with a fab ‘scouse’ accent I have to say!

Decided I wanted to get back into teaching after being in senior management for a while and so became a foundation stage leader, 7 years ago, teaching the reception class. Got itchy feet last year and started looking around – was appointed as a nursery teacher in January.

We have up to 40 children attending each session, with a team of four staff. The children, parents and staff are brilliant and I am always logging on to ABC DOES for new ideas and inspiration – never fails to deliver – not enough hours in the day though!

Sounds great Jenni - only sorry I wasn't there to join in! Thanks again.

28/05/2012

Whether it is Nursery and Reception or Reception and Year 1 together - cross phase working and planning can be a HUGELY positive experience for children but if it is done 'properly' then there are lots of challenges for the practitioners.

Whilst adult directed activities are not such usually the issue, the main challenge comes through effective differentiation within the continuous provision. Your resourcing and challenge in all of your areas has to cater for the ability levels of all of your children from the lest to the most able. With two age groups together you are often significantly increasing the range of ability you are catering for.

I have never yet come across a setting where the provision has been set at too high a level. Usually the provision is aimed towards the younger children resulting in the older ones having long periods of their day where there is a lack of challenge and low learning potential.

The flip side of this is where the environment is planned for Year One and Reception children completely miss out on the Foundation Stage Curriculum apart from a few token opportunities to do some 'finishing off activities'.

Good cross phase planning can be done and the results can be VERY effective both in terms of personal development and attainment.

As I have mentioned before, I am working with The Friars Primary School where Emma teaches in the Nursery and Andy teaches in Reception. They both start their day in their own space, but after their first whole class input, Reception come into the Nursery space and the the two classes work together.

Attainment has been the big focus for our work together and the team are now able to clearly show how they plan to meet the needs of their cross phase group. They have moved to objective led planning and child led learning and have worked hard to put differentiation and challenge into their continuous provision. They are still on their journey and I keep adding things to their 'to do' list, but they have achieved a great deal over the past year.

There is a strong focus on the essentials that have been identified by assessment and observation. Lots of work on communication skills and fine motor skills

With mark making a big focus it is important that the whole team are aware of where the children are developmentally and what appropriate next steps should look like.

All children have a short, fun, daily physical intervention which is aimed at consolidating their stage of development and moving them forward.

Fine motor/hand eye development

How many nuts can you screw on in a minute?

Some fine motor challenges then become part of the continuous provision

The fine motor focus is then carried on into the adult led activities. There was a great deal of interest in the 'Transformers' film and that interest had been used as the focus for some activity planning.

Still developing your fine motor skills here. If you are one of the children who is really motivated by 'Transformers' then this activity is 'sold' to you as a 'Transformers' activity. If not then the activity is flexible enough to engage you through another route.

Simple deconstruction then led to more complex electronics...

Using a battery to power a motor to make a propeller turn...

Discovering, then being able to explain why two batteries make your bulb shine brighter than one.

'Transformers' was also used to target specific children for writing development. A Transformers box was created for interest and then filled with provision aimed at specific development. The use of the contents of the box was modelled by an adult with a writing focus during CP

Then a baby bird fell out of it's nest in the outdoor area and the planning focus shifted. Because this is objective led planning NOT activity led, the teaching stays the same it is only the focus that changes.

An urgent message was sent to the Head who contacted the RSPB and their response was reported back to the children. (Leave it alone!)

The Friars have had a deconstructed role play area for a while now. One of their ongoing issues is the development of children's talk. Although it was being used for other role play, a number of children had started 'hairdresser' role play so the team had introduced a 'hairdresser' enhancement box.

Great if you haven't had time to do your hair before you get to work!

It was really lovely to share in the engagement of the children and to see the progress that the team have made in ensuring that they are planning for attainment and challenge across the setting.

Next Steps? Well, pretty much for Emma and the team to keep doing what they are doing and now expand those principles into all areas of provision. How do you ensure that you have got differentiation and challenge in your sand, water, workshop or painting area so that children get the opportunity not only to try new skills but to extend the ones that they have already acquired?

So, that is what we are working on next. I will of course keep you posted on how we get on...

22/05/2012

When I am not writing or delivering conferences I spend the rest of my time working in a wide variety of EYFS settings. Sometimes it is just a one off visit to do an audit of practice and provision or to help with a specific issue like mark making or outdoor. But there are some very lucky settings who have the 'pleasure' of repeat ABC visits.

One of those is Halton Lodge Primary who I 'bother' on a fairly regular basis. I was originally invited by Darren when he took over as the new Head and identified EYFS as an area for his own professional development.

We have done some joint observations (much to the sheer joy of the EYFS team) and he always has a list of EYFS questions for me when I go. I always suspected that he glazed over after the first 2 minutes of my pedagogical outpourings but to my great surprise, and pride, he gave a very comprehensive explanation of objective led as opposed to activity led planning on my last visit.

That would be like me understanding and being able to explain the offside rule to any of my 3 children who all reckon they know it anyway!

Football aside, here are some of the things that we have been working on at Halton Lodge and what Ruth, Karen and Lyndsey have done since my last visit...

Display

The team were keen to make sure that all of their display is engaging and related to learning. Ruth and Karen both have an iPad for use in the classroom and they have created lots of learning stories using an app called Halftone. The children loved being in their own comic strip, especially as Avengers fever was rife!

As part of their phonic work children were creating their own labels for various areas of the classroom. Because they had created them they were keen to read and share them

The 'have a go if you want to' area is right beside the self service snack area, so if the table is full you have got something to keep you amused and challenge you while you wait.

These are the instructions for a fine motor challenge activity (more of that in a moment).

Most of their display now clearly shows a record of the process of learning rather than 30 versions of the same end result. As well as adult judgements there are lots of examples of children's voices which really helps to make the display engaging for the children and clearly explains the learning process to adults.

Differentiation in Continuous Provision

I usually give the same advice to all settings when we start to look at building differentiation and challenge into continuous provision - start with mark making! Ruth and the team started looking at that a good while ago and have now extended the principles into lots of other areas of their CP. They have gone for a 3 colour system. This is more for the adults than it is for the children. The colours relate to levels of difficulty within the CP. Although any child is welcome to have a go with any if the activities, the adults will use their knowledge of the child and the content of the basket to ensure challenge by encouraging them to have a go.

The fact that the activities are VERY engaging and based on children's interests and not boring topics or themes makes the children more than happy to try.

Threading onto sticks against the clock

Differentiation on top and inside of the provision

Fine motor development

'use a stick to pop the pictures'

Of course you don't always have to have the same colour as top, middle or bottom you can rotate them - as long as you can remember which is which!

It was also good to see some challenge bags in use, with specific challenges for specific children.

FIne Motor Development

The team have a daily focus on fine motor/grip development for all children, really looking at the small steps in development as opposed to the broad sweep, 'name card and tracing paper' approach to letter formation and writing.

Their activities are differentiated and themed to children's interests. Although not exclusively, there were lots of activities 'dressed' for interest around The Avengers.

Threading for fiddly fingers

Skinny straws and fat pasta

The children use the cocktail stick to punch holes in the paper around the outline of the image. This is really good for hand/eye coordination, strengthening wrist pivot and developing a triangulating grip.

Differentiated of course!

Opportunities to Mark Make

I saw loads of opportunities to mark make from focused adult intervention through to continuous provision. One thing that they all had in common was a high level of engagement. Partly that was due to the subject matter and partly to the fact that the mark making was relevant and purposeful.

Sign and label writing

Secret bat messages

Come and write about your favourite bit of this activity

'I put some cheese and ham on the wrap'

Finding pirate treasure

Then recording your 'finds' by writing in sand

There is nothing like an iPad to engage children in the writing process!

Yes, they are working on that grip!

There was certainly lots of purposeful learning going on. Attainment was very evident and easy to see without having to trawl through reams and reams of paperwork and planning. The environment on its own gave a very good indication of the type of practice and the quality of judgements that were taking place and then the practice just backed that up.

I have not even mentioned the child initiated army den, complete with hand printed camouflage netting and 'Keep Out' labels, or the hovercraft in the KUW area...

or the brilliantly managed self service snack ...

It was here where I was 'invited' to taste test a sample of the dips. The request was made by a lovely little girl who, after I had eaten my carefully prepared bread stick, revealed that she had 'already sucked the dip off twice' but she didn't like 'that stinky one'! That would be the garlic dip then! There is nothing I like more than licked garlic dip off a twice sucked bread stick!

Thank you Ruth, Karen and Lyndsey for a great day. I will be sending Darren the bill for the Pepto-Bismol!

11/05/2012

In my last blog post, I talked about how to meet the sorts of challenges that practitioners may have in mixed age rooms. Some of these may be because settings are now taking 2-year-olds for the first time.

In this blog post, I intend to be more practical and discuss some activities for your 2-year-olds. These will support their learning and development, but, much more importantly, they are fun!

Language Development

Singing with your 2-year-olds helps them hear the different sounds and recognise the rhythms of words. It also helps children remember words. Not many people can recite a poem from beginning to end, but plenty can sing every word to their favourite song!

Songs with repetition and regular patterns are the best for very young children, such as:

Here we go round the Mulberry Bush

Row, Row Your Boat

See Saw Marjory Daw

Old MacDonald Had A Farm

London’s Burning

Kodaly was a Hungarian music educationalist whose “astonishingly high standard of choral singing and musical achievement in Hungary” is attributed to his teaching methods. He believed that children should learn to sing first and that music should belong to everyone. The Kodaly website referenced at the end has loads of information about the benefits of singing and plenty of great activities for older children as well.

Listen out for ‘environmental’ sounds. These are just the sounds that are in the environment around you. For example, bird song, an airplane going overhead, a dripping tap, running water, the heating fan humming, the fridge. By being able to distinguish between the sounds going on in the background, children can start to differentiate between sounds so they can cue into speech sounds. In order to hear speech clearly, it must be more than 20dB louder than the environmental sounds. This is why having a TV, radio or music CD on in the background all day distracts children and is not good for language development.

The Letters and Sounds phonics programme has some great ideas for games.

For example:

A singing version of hotter/colder, where the singing gets louder the closer the searcher gets to the hidden object.

Sound Lotto. Each child has a board with a number of pictures on. For your 2 year old it is best to keep it to 4 pictures per board. Recorded sounds, which match the pictures, are played and the child has to match the sound to the picture. This can be even more fun if you make the boards yourself, with your 2 year old.

Lying outside on the grass with your eyes closed, listening to the outdoor sounds going on.

Gently tapping different items outdoors with a drumstick – the railings, the paving slabs, the wooden fence. Listen for the different sounds they make.

A lot of very early language development is about breath control, so activities such as blowing paint spots using a straw, blowing bubbles, blowing feathers and blowing out candles are good for supporting this.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

Your 2-year-old is beginning to understand empathy, independence and some even some self-control. Learning to play with other children builds up negotiation skills and cooperation. By re-enacting scenarios with small world play or in the home corner, children can begin to make sense of the world. This can be supported with:

Simple turn taking games such as hide and seek

Group activities such as ring games (Ring a ring O Roses, Farmers in the Dell)

Small world figures, including a range of people, animals and places

Home corner or tent where your 2-year-old can set up ‘home’ and be in control

Being in charge of the game or scenario, with you being the child (your 2-year-old as teacher, mum, lollipop man whilst you join in)

Physical Development

At this age children are beginning to be able to control their bodies, but they may still need a hand with some things, such as balancing on a plank of wood, climbing to the top of the climbing frame, kicking a ball. They are likely to be very interested in anything messy or tactile. This is good for their sensory development and very easy to provide. For example:

Gloop – a mixture of cornflour and water, which is solid when squeezed but then dissolves into liquid once the pressure, is removed. Incredibly messy, great fun.

Cloud dough – an 8:1 mix of plain flour and baby oil, which turns the flour into a substance like wet sand, mouldable but easily disintegrated.

Any activities that involves all the senses, such as:

smelling, tasting and feeling a cut open lemon

smelling spice and herb jars

Action/finger songs are great for promoting an awareness of a 2-year-olds own body in space (proprioception). These could be:

Peter pointer

5 little ducks went swimming one day

2 little dickie birds sitting on a wall

5 fat peas in a pea pod pressed

Arabella Miller

Whole body songs are a great combination of physical and language development. For example:

10 (or 5!) in the bed, re-enacted with 10 (or 5) children

3 little monkeys bouncing on the bed

I’m a dingle dangle scarecrow

Oranges and lemons

There are plenty of websites with practical ideas, which you can use and modify to suit your needs.

These are only a taster of the sort of activities that your 2-year-old may be interested in. Of course, the best play thing that any 2-year-old can have is an attentive, interested and enthusiastic adult!

19/03/2012

I am often asked to go and work with settings who want to 'do more' with their baby rooms. The fact that babies are so reliant on adult support and intervention to engage them at the very beginning of their learning journey can be a real challenge.

I was really pleased to discover Emma at Little Explorers Sensory who is committed to making those first experiences relevant, meaningful and fun!

I have asked her to do me a guest post to explain a bit more about what she does...

It still surprises me that I am now a business woman rather than a teacher; the whole process of setting up Little Explorers Sensory is still somewhat of a blur and I’m sure it was only the madness born from sleep deprivation that got me here.

Yet here I am, 18 months after the birth of my son thoroughly enjoying designing sensory play classes for babies, spending time at home with Albert and grappling with accounts and finance. Whilst my business acumen may make Lord Sugar shudder I like to think he would be impressed with my commitment to the principles of the EYFS, and admire how the driving force behind the Little Explorers Sensory has been providing the very best environment for sensory play rather than milking the Yummy Mummy culture and making as much money as possible.

When designing every aspect of the classes I’ve asked myself ‘Is it high quality? Is it child/carer centred?’ For instance each class has a maximum of 12 babies instead of a monster-sized 30 like other classes I’ve attended, to make sure experiences are rich and everyone has the time and space to fully explore. Being able to draw on my experiences of working with babies and young children from the last 10 years, 6 of them as an EYFS teacher, has been really fulfilling; like the best bits of teaching without having to worry about the paperwork and those things that get you down.

As a starting point I asked myself, what skills would I have liked children coming to me in Nursery or Reception to possess? What experiences would I like them to have had so they can hit the ground running and fully access the richness of the EYFS curriculum and reach their potential?

The answer: children who were independent, curious and excited; who were active explorers with a wide knowledge of materials and the physical world, who had access to an expansive bank of vocabulary and language to describe it. Children who had great co-operation skills, who were creative thinkers and could indulge in imaginative play. This helped me work out what I wanted Little Explorers Sensory to be and what it would set out to achieve.

I wanted Little Explorers to be more than an isolated activity providing sensory equipment and experiences. I wanted carers to be actively involved in and help facilitate their babies’ discoveries and have the time to explore by themselves as well as part of a large group so that playing together in this manner would become part of their repertoire at home. In this way, Little Explorers Sensory would be part of the wider Learning Journey of each baby and carer.

I set out to encourage and actively support carers to make purposeful interactions and commentaries so sensory play would become powerful and language would become embedded in a concrete and meaningful way. By encouraging carers to make links, such as comparing the sensation of exploring chocolate-mud in a jungle smallworld to the experience of eating yogurt, babies would begin to build a clear picture of their world.

It was important that babies had the opportunity to handle and explore objects themselves rather than just observing others to foster independence and baby-led exploration. In essence, I wanted to help babies connect to their environment; help them begin to understand their bodies, the space around them and the materials and objects in it.

Most importantly I wanted Little Explorers to be fresh and different; highly creative, friendly and extremely fun.

Each themed class has a clear EYFS focus to make sure babies develop in all Areas of Learning and enables me to help meet the needs of the younger and older babies. I felt it was important to share the EYFS focus with the carers so the power of play and the skills it can develop was clear.

Interestingly, teachers have made up a large part of the dads, mums and nannies who come to classes, the majority of whom attend for many months until the inevitable return to work or the decision to embark on more toddler-focused activities. This creates a warm and friendly atmosphere as carers really get to know each other and the classes become a space to engage in quality sensory play, have lots of fun and a good old chat.

It is wonderful to get to know the carers and babies but the real pleasure comes in watching small babies a few weeks old grow and develop over the months into curious, competent, funny little characters. It is a genuine sadness I feel when the time comes for babies and carers to move on.

I know Little Explorers Sensory will grow and improve as I undertake my own Learning Journey but I hope I am beginning to achieve much of what I set out to do.

Hearing carers comments and reading the reviews on my website is extremely humbling yet also brings enormous relief that I am going in the right direction and I did not make a huge mistake not going back to school.

I do miss teaching and when I come across inspiring resources such as abcdoes I want to run straight back to my classroom and get stuck in. I know I’ll go back one day when my children are older but for now I am very much enjoying my new life. Apart from the accounts!

Thank you so much for agreeing to do a guest blog for me Emma. I am sure lots of practitioners will be inspired by the work that you do.

09/03/2012

The work I am doing at the moment with settings on how they are managing their continuous provision is having some really positive impact on attainmentso I thought I would share a bit!

As EYFS practitioners a great many of us are about to get bashed over the head with a big stick called 'school readiness'! I have already encountered numerous settings (schools in particular) where this phrase is being interpreted as a green light to go back to formality and get the tables back out of the store cupboard!

There is often a large gap between the quality practice that is taking place in EYFS and the knowledge of the person who is making judgments about impact and attainment and that is because often, they are not sure what it is they are looking at. A more formal approach to teaching makes it easier to make those judgements.

In the past Headteachers have said to me that they can see how the children are learning when they are with an adult, but when they are playing in the environment they find it had to see evidence of attainment taking place.

When it comes to how a lot of us use our Continuous Provision, then I think they have a valid point.

I think Continuous Provision is often greatly misunderstood.

Continuous Provision is NOT just the resources that you have out all of the time. I think a better definition of the term is:

'To continue the provision for learning in the absence of an adult.'

In any area where you put a range of resources and a group of children there will be potential to develop those children's skills in personal interaction and exploration, but unless those resources have been carefully selected to meet the development needs of those specific children, then the learning potential is limited and greatly left to chance.

If you think about what you know about children, when they get the chance to 'choose' what to do they tend to pick things that they like and can do. This is just basic human nature. I have yet to meet an EYFS child who will make the conscious decision to walk into an area of Continuous Provision and actively challenge themselves.

A nice set of resources. But, what are they there for? Who are they there for? How am I going to encourage key children to use any of them, let alone ones specific to their development?

So, If your CP is just a selection of resourced linked to a general area of development. Then when I am playing in there, my opportunities for learning are limited.

Really these are not areas of Continuous Provision. They are holding stations for children that keep them busy doing things they can already do until an adult comes along to take their learning forward.

As well as providing opportunities for exploration and discovery, your CP HAS to be linked to your assessment of your current cohort. If it going to be available all of the time an children are going to access it with limited adult input it HAS to be structured around their development needs and dressed to reflect their interests.

Could you stand in front of each and every area of CP in your setting and tell me how what is in that area is directly linked to your observation and assessment of your children?

Can you show me the assessment and link it to specific resources?

Does the size of your area of CP reflect the needs of your cohort? If you have children who need to develop language and talk skills, have you significantly increased the size of those areas?

Have you levelled your CP, linked to assessment so that you can show which resources have been placed in there linked to the development of high middle and low achievers in that area?

For example, if we were standing in front of your mark making area could you show me how you had set that space up to reflect the mark making development of your current cohort? Have you got resources in place that are specifically aimed at each stage of their mark making development?

MOST IMPORTANTLY have you 'dressed' specific resources to appeal to the group of children that you are targeting?

If you have a bunch of fine motor girls who are into Disney Princesses and a bunch of more gross motor boys who are into Ben 10 then you could create 2 boxes of resources one that contains lots of things that challenge and develop fine motor skills and another that challenge and develop more gross motor.

If I just put these two boxes in my mark making area then the target group of children might, perhaps, maybe come in and pick up the correct resource, or maybe not!

If I 'dress' the fine motor resources and the box in a Disney Princess theme and the gross motor in a Ben 10 theme, then if I am one of your gross motor target boys, I am more likely to come into the mark making area in the first place because there is a Ben 10 box in there. When I get in there I am more likely to put my hand in the Ben 10 box than I am the princess one. Therefore I am significantly more likely to be accessing a resource that has been specifically chosen to help my development.

The Arches Primary

Crofton Hammond Infant School

You CANNOT guarantee that this will happen every time, but what you can do is say with confidence that you have:

'maximised the potential for attainment in Continuous Provision and minimised the risk of failure.'

Now when anyone asks you if you can quantify attainment outside of focused teaching, the job just got a whole lot easier and as a practitioner, you can be secure in the knowledge that your CP is really continuing the provision for learning and isn't just a collection of nice resources.

There is so much that you can do to ensure that your environment has a huge role to play in impacting on attainment that this short post only begins to scrape the surface. But hopefully it has got you thinking.

OUTDOORS

I appreciate that for lots of people, outdoors is still the part of the curriculum delivery that presents a great deal of challenge. Maybe not so much in just getting out there, but how you provide quality learning and not just 'playtime'.

What we should all be aiming for is equality between indoors and out in terms of planning, resourcing and use. We need to think of our indoor and outdoor together and one big space and not two separate ones. Some children prefer to learn outdoors and the outdoor environment can offer so many unique opportunities that indoors just can't.

Although there are many links between indoor and outdoor play, outdoor play offers the opportunity to develop and extend specific skills.

Penguin Pre-School

When you are thinking about your outdoor provision, first look to your assessment and see which areas of skill development are a priority for your children

Next look at your outdoor space and see if those areas are explicitly represented and also consider where there might be opportunities to enhance other areas with more discreet resources to consolidate or expand the skill you are focusing on.

Then ask yourself the big question...

What makes this activity outdoor play and not just indoor play taken outside?

If you take your Duplo out onto a mat on a sunny day, that is not outdoor play. It is playing with indoor resources outside.

If you have a water tray outdoors that is filled with the same equipment that you would have indoors then that is not outdoor water play it is indoor water taken outside.

The same rule applies to all areas of provision.

I am not saying that you shouldn't do that. There are occasions when you might want to develop the 'indoor skills' but the children you are targeting want to be outside. So, rather than pull them in from their area of engagement you would take those resources out.

The Arches Primary

What I am saying is that you can't really call this 'outdoor play' in the sense of developing the skills that are unique to the outdoor environment.

Often I will work with settings that have huge wooden sand pits outdoors, but there is only 4 inches of sand in them and they are filled with exactly the same equipment as the indoor sand tray - we are back to indoor play outside again.

In lots of outdoor play experiences there will be elements of indoor resourcing. These often act as a familiar 'bridge' that allow children to initially access familiar equipment that will lead them into other types of skill development.

In an outdoor painting area you might have regular sized bushes and sponges to use if you are targeting indoor skills with the outdoor children or as a link to what the children know to help them to initially access the space, but what have you got in it that makes it 'outdoor provision', have you acknowledged the skill development that that area can offer and are you promoting it?

Middlefield Primary

If I am doing an outdoor project with a setting, I will get them to go around each of their outdoor areas, look at their resources and ask the question 'what makes this outdoor?'

There are of course lots of indoor enhancements that you can make to your outdoor provision like books, mark making material etc. But, you are placing them in your outdoor provision to capitalise on children's interest and engagement in the outdoors. This engagement and interest will help with the job of developing basic skills like reading and writing . However, in theory (and still in some settings) those skills could be mastered in the classroom, without taking a step into the outside world!

So, to sum up BRIEFLY...

Start with assessment to identify need

Reflect the need identified in the provision you offer

Link 'bridging skills' to indoor provision

Be clear and explicit about why you have put indoor privision outside (like your water tray)

Be clear and explicit about how you are planning for the development of outdoor skills

Take the time to work with your team to really ensure that everyone has an understanding of skill development in children and how effective use of the indoor outdoor environment can have a significant impact on their attainment.

01/03/2012

There is SO much to write about an effective planning process in EYFS. I will do my best to strip it down to what I think are the bare bones. This is not going to be an in depth study, but hopefully will give you a few ideas.

There are lots of other factors that might effect the way that you plan, like the space and staff you have available but the basic principle should always be the same.

Sudley Infant School

Learning is far more effective when you take it into children's play as opposed to pulling children away from their play to come and sit at your table to 'learn'.

So - for me, the key points are:

Everything is driven by assessment

Environment is crucial

Outdoor is as important as indoor

Continuous Provision MUST impact on attainment

Plan 'next steps' objectives and outcomes NOT activities

Plan to children's interests NOT topics

Do NOT explicitly group children

Assessment

Assessment and observations are the key. Having said that they have to be accurate assessments and observations done with, not to children. You want to find out what children can do when they are doing their best, not when they are bored or dying to get away from you and back to what they were doing.

Time your assessments well and create an environment that supports your assessment process as opposed to dragging children out into a freezing corridor with a clip board full of initial sounds!

Surely this is a better way to assess number letter or number recognition?

Having said that, the children would probably learn much quicker if they weren't having to recognise cursive script. Why when a child is just beginning to learn to recognise and write letter shapes would you confuse them with this? In this case it was not the fault of the teacher it was a classic 'whole school initiative' !

Assessment should inform your Environment

You should always structure your environment to reflect the needs of your current cohort. This means that your environment could look different at the beginning of every year because the needs of every cohort will probably be different.

Whenever you do any summative assessment you should make sure that your environment has been tweaked and enhanced to meet the needs that the assessment has highlighted.

If I asked you...

Could you match your environment to your last assessment indoors and out?

Have you created numerous opportunities for children to engage in activities that develop the skills that they need most as opposed to just creating six generic areas?

Have you enhanced your Continuous Provision to reflect that skill development?

How are you recording this process?

How are you showing impact?

It is really important, not only for the clarity of your own thinking, but also as evidence of your impact, to record the changes that you make in your environment in response to children's needs. There are lots of ways to do this but you can have a look at an example of a blank and completed 'Environment Map' here.

This deconstructed role play area trebled the size of the exiting 'themed' role play and was created as a direct response to a point of entry assessment that indicated that children had low Personal Social skills and limited Language skills. It was enhanced with lots of first hand objects for the purpose of naming and recognition.

The setting also created a designated 'talk' area complete with a 'talk sofa'. The area was enhanced with interesting and unusual objects to promote discussion.

As the year goes on, children's skill level should develop in response to the provision that you have put in place. This development will mean further changes in your environment to accurately reflect where the children are at.

Recording the assessment that has taken place, the changes that you have made as a result and the impact of those changes on attainment are a crucial part of your evaluation process.

When I’m in a setting and I’m considering the impact of their display, I have a couple of general rules of thumb. Without looking at any planning, talking to any staff or children, just by looking at the walls can I get a real sense of the children who inhabit this space? Can I see the diversity of their curriculum, their interests? Is there clear evidence that the children’s voices are being recorded and that they are shaping the content of the curriculum? Is there space around the display that really highlights the key features and is it personalised for THIS cohort of children?

Are practitioners also recording their thoughts about what they have seen on display? This can be description of the process or a statement of attainment. There are lots of ways of doing this, here are just three.

East Herrington Primary School

Crofton Hammond Infant School

St Thomas Moores Primary

REMEMBER - We display what the children produce. We DO NOT give children activities to produce a display.

The days of display boards covered in 3o versions of the same thing are long gone! Diversity is the key.

Teach a skill NOT an end result

The skill should be the SAME the end result could be very DIFFERENT

So, if you are introducing the children to the use of pastels you would not get each of them to do a pastel picture of a daffodil for your 'Spring' display. Your display would become what the children chose to do when they were experimenting with pastels. You might get a daffodil if you are lucky but you will also probably get plenty of Ben 10!

I am not interested in daffodils, I am interested in Ben 10.

Your learning objective/outcome was to introduce me to the skill/process of using pastels NOT observational drawings of a daffodil.

I will learn best when I am most engaged

Therefore I should be able to draw what motivates me most.

Of course, once you have introduced a child to a new skill like folding, sticking, textured paint, pastels, the materials they used should be available for them to select or request from then on. Ideally what you want to see is a child choosing to use a skill that you have taught them, independently in their own work. Then you really know that they have got it.

I will have a look at Outdoor and Continuous Provision next post - plus I still want to share the outcomes of the Hampshire project so far. So much to share...so little time!

10/02/2012

The work I did in Hampshire is going to form part of a case study that I have been asked to write so I emailed all of the participants to ask them for a photograph to use in the book. So far, only Tim has obliged. So, for anyone who was wondering...this is Tim.

On receipt of this image I did ask him if it was his application photo for America's Next Top Model! He assures me it is nothing of the sort!

Other than personalising his environment Tim and I were looking at the use of the other adult for maximum impact.

I have been looking at this with a number of settings and have now got a planning system that is proving to be very effective.

The basic principle is that you identify WHAT you are going to teach, based on assessment and observation.

You group your children into 4(ish) broad groups based on their attainment in that area

You identify what their current skill level is in that area

You plan a next steps OBJECTIVE for each group (NOT AN ACTIVITY)

You go into the children's play where their engagement is highest and apply the objectives to individual children.

It is a very powerful model that is achieving high level results.

Tim and I looked at his current planning and discussed the 'ideal' model. The next step for him was to come up with something that would allow his team to transition into a new way of planning without jumping in with two feet on day one.

This is how Tim used to plan. The groups would be called to the adult to complete a pre-planned activity.

Now the staff have kept the groups, but the children are unaware which group they are in. The colours are used as an identification system for staff.

One a key area has been identified (in this case PSRN - positional language) then the children are grouped for that area. A statement of current attainment for each group is made and then CRUCIALLY a next steps statement. It is this next steps statement that the staff will be teaching.

Now if I get a group of children who want to come and 'play' with my activity, I just amend my expectations and outcomes based on the child I am talking to at the time, and what their next step is.

So, as the session starts the children go off into continuous provision and (on this occasion) each member of the team begins to play within an activity they have set up. There was dressing a doll's house, Bee-Bots and building an obstacle course (outdoor). Because there is an adult 'playing' the children are more likely to come over to see what is going on and then to join in.

The 'transition' here for Tim's team is that the adult is still starting with an adult led activity. It is not at a table and is very much centred around play. The content of the activity will be based on children's interests but it will still be instigated by the adult.

The next step it to mix that apporach with one where the adult doesn't have an activity - just the next steps objectives and they then take those into appropriate 'pockets' of high interest play around the environment.

If there are any children who don't visit one of the 3 activities then the adults will go and join children in their areas of interest and use their skill to introduce the next steps objectives. This method of practice is NOT about hijacking children's sustained thinking or deep level learning. It is about engaging children in their areas of interest and leading their learning.

Tim then shared another practical example of this planning in action.

This one was all to do with racing cars inside...

and a car wash outside. By identifying the interests of difficult to engage groups of children and taking the learning into their play, you get a much higher level of engagement and attainment.

He had also tried it with repeating patterns.

At the moment Tim and his team are trialing this approach so only apply it to certain sessions which allows everyone to get their head around it and also see the impact. Over the next term he will be rolling it out across all sessions.

I have really enjoyed working with Tim and look forward to visiting him again at the end of the Summer term to see how he is getting on with it!

06/02/2012

Had a great week 'down south' last week and met some truly inspiring people. My southern tour kicked off with a celebration day of the project work that I have been doing with Hampshire LA looking at making great practice even better, not necessarily by changing it, but perhaps just looking at it from a different angle.

Everyone I am working with is a Leading Foundation Stage Practitioner (LFSP) for the borough, so they have lots of experience in their field and also support a number of other settings alongside the Local Authority.

I have been working with Amey and the team at Little 1's day nursery, Helen and her team at Noah's Ark pack away pre-school, Jodie and her parallel Reception class and staff at Crofton Hammond Infant School and Tim and his parallel Reception class and team at St Thomas Moore's Primary.

On my initial visit I did some observations and general poking about and then had a period of discussion with each of the LSFP's. This session became known as the 'ABC headache' session as apparantly I managed to give them all one by the time I left! It was through the 'headache' process that we identified a key area(s) of focus for the project and created and action plan.

Each practitioner then worked on that plan in their setting. I went back for a follow up visit and then we brought it all together at the celebration day with each of the gang giving a 'warts and all' presentation of their journey so far.

I thought it would be really interesting to share some of the things that we did. So, I am starting with Tim's presentation.

When you walk into Tim's classroom it has certainly got the 'WOW' factor. He is a man with an eye for display. There was lots going on around his room which was very well coordinated, but the one thing that struck me about it was that although Tim clearly had a really good understanding of his children's needs and achieved a high level of engagement with all of the children in his class there was little evidence of this in his environment. Much of the display was computer generated from a selection of download sites. What I wanted Tim to do was to keep the 'feel' of his room but personalise it far more to his children to heighten their interest and raise engagement which would then impact on attainment.

Once I was long gone after my initial visit then Tim fed back to his team lots of the things that we had discussed. Although they were positive on the whole it is quite understandable that there were some questions about what it was all about and why a school that got good results needed to change their practice.

I think one of the key findings of this bit of the project was that it is important to try and find a mechanism to involve the whole team in some sort of discussion on the first visit so that everyone has the opportunity to discuss the points for development. I know this is not always possible due to time and finding bodies/funding to allow release, but it should definitely be high on the priority list.

Even though Tim managed to do a great deal in a very short space of time he was very sensible about the size of the initial changes he was going to make. Although he was tempted to take loads down and start again, he focused on a couple of key areas where he thought a personalised display would have the most impact. This also gave the rest of his team a chance to get their heads around what he was trying to achieve and to see its impact for themselves.

Tim had taken the concept of a personalised alphabet and run with it! The child's picture was the starting point if their name started with that sound (not just letter) and then the children also made a collection of other objects that also started with that sound.

Where there is no child in the class whose name starts with that sound then the children choose something that is of interest to them like Dora.

When Tim showed this slide to the conference he made it clear that although it was a good start, he still wasn't happy with it. In his school the Reception children HAVE to learn cursive script - hence the cursive writing. Now, cursive writing is confusing enough when you are just learning initial letter shapes, never mind when you then display it on an angle! So next time he has vowed there will be no wonky letters! With photographs, illustrations and alphabet all going on it makes for one very packed display so alongside his lack of wonky letters he is going to make the ones that are on display far more visible for the early learner.

Like with everything, it has been a learning journey for Tim as well as the children. It was really useful for the delegates to see and hear the bits of the process he wanted to change as well as the bits he felt he had got right.

Underneath the alphabet he has created a vertical mark making space where children are encouraged to use their phonic knowledge to make marks and write. I have to say, when I was there it was a VERY popular part of the provision.

In the parallel Reception class to Tim the team had created a personalised number line with the children. Due to the current lay out of the room this had to be strung from the ceiling for the time being but that will not be it's permanent home. As soon as space is made available it is moving to child height for maximum impact.

To encourage the use of the outdoor equipment and other areas of the clasroom the team had cut photogrpahs out from the catalogue that the equipment was ordered from. Tim replaced these with photos of children in the setting using the equipment instead.

I let him off with his 'Computer Area' label! (For now!)

Around his workshop area Tim has a 'Wall of Pride' where a piece of work would be chosen from each child to be displayed. Now the children are in charge of their own space and choose themselves what they want to display, even being responsible for mounting their own work.

Staff have started to annotate the spaces with what the child said about their work (speech bubble) and what the team think/are going to do next (thought bubble).

It was a really eclectic gallery of models, paintings and drawings. You could get a great idea of children's interests and quality of adult judgements just by looking at the wall.

Tim pointed out that at the moment all of the background sheets are either luminous orange, green or yellow which does significantly detract from the child's creation. So, for next time - a more neutral background will be put up!

When Tim and I were first ever discussing the idea of personalising his learning environment, I showed him a photograph of a piece of display that I had seen Vanessa at St Philips Cof E Primary in Salford use with great success to engage parents .

Vanessa's idea was that she took a 'learning story' and wrote it out like a story that would be really easy for non educationalists to access. Then alongside the 'story' she wrote about the skills that the child would have coverd during the activity and what the practitioners were going to do next to take that forward. This is one of Vanessa's

These Learning Stories can also be copied and used in children's learning journeys.

This is Tim's version of the 'Learning Story'. As the subject in question is a real animal, as opposed to a fictional one, he has presented it with lots of the features of a non-fiction text

Not only does it raise children's self esteem by being up on the wall it also shows a good example of children's interests shaping the curriculum and inspires others to have a go.

Next post I will show you how Tim and I worked together to develop the role of the adult in the setting and look at a different way of planning for impact during adult directed activities and adult focus during continuous provision.

28/09/2011

I am working on lots of projects at the moment with various clusters of schools across our fair nation. All very different and all very interesting and more info about them all will be coming to the blog soon!

Today I was at the very grandly titled JH Godwin Primary school in Chester working with the lovely ladies in Reception.

Now then, the school is in an area that has pockets of significant challenge and the children tend to arrive well below the expected level for their age in the majority of areas. This years intake are particularly poor in talk, speaking and listening and PSE - especiallly sharing. Add to that the fact that there are 23 boys - yes, I will say it again 23 BOYS and 7 girls...you get the picture!

Steph and Emma have their work cut out - but are clearly up for the challenge! What excited me most about my visit today was the fact the the ladies had decided to ditch the old 'Autumn' or 'Ourselves' usual September 'topic' approach and go with a theme inspired by the children's interests.

As a result the children walked into a crime scene! Lightining McQueen was planning a party and SOMEONE had put mud all over the outside wheeled toys making them filthy. Who could it have been?

Well, what clues would you look for? If you had been smearing things with mud how might you look? That was it. Dirty hands! So the hunt for dirty hands began.

Then the culprit was found.....Charlie!

Check out those hands!

Next challenge...get those bikes cleaned up by building a car wash. The children did a brilliant building job. There was SO much learning involved in it.

Part of the children's design was was that there were gaps in the roof to let the water through and the walls were re-built so that you could squirt through the gaps just like a'real' car wash!

Very quickly the bikes were washed and washed and washed again. There were lots of opportunities for large and small scale mark making available so signs were soon made to tell customers when the car wash was open and closed.

A health and safety check was even carried out by non other than Bob the Builder himself (or so he said)!

Whilst all this was happening there were lots of other pockets of high level engagement all over the setting. It was clear to see that activities had been specifically planned to develop those emergent skills.

This was a good one for gross motor, fine motor, hand/eye coordination and balance (and mud)!

Lots of our afternoon was spent discussing how the curriculum needed to be carefully structured to reflect the genetic make up of the group making sure that the girls didn't miss out because of the 'boyness' of lots of the boys. Also that the environment and planning that is going on now needs to respond to the immediate and fundamental needs of this particular cohort. In the short term this might mean not giving the full and broad access to the EYFS curriculum that you would ideally wish - but there is no point in trying to give the children everything if they don't have the skills to access the learning or use the environment correctly.

16/08/2011

I know that this is a subject that causes lots of headaches. Whether you are in mixed age group class or you are trying to manage the transition between Reception and Year One.

Unfortunately there is no 'magic' planning format or timetable that will sort this out for you but there are a few things that you can put in place that will really help you to get the best for all of the children in your care.

Ethos

This is the most important thing to establish before you do anything else. What is the ethos and expectation of the Senior Management Team of your school with regard to styles of teaching in Reception and Year One.

This might not necessarily be your ethos, but it is the one that you are going to be asked to follow so make sure you are very clear.

Usually approaches to EYFS practice and transition fall into one of the categories below:

We really embrace the essence of a play based approach to learning in FS. We have seen real impact on wellbeing and attainment and want this to be continued into Year One.

We embrace the essence of a play based approach in Reception but think that Year One is the time for ‘work’ to start so let them play a bit, but only for the first term maximum.

We embrace the essence of a play based approach in Reception but by the third term it is time to ‘get them ready’ for Year One.

We embrace the essence of a play based approach in Reception once the children have finished their work.

For cross phase planning to be effective ‘play based’ has to mean just that. A curriculum where high level expectations, and a focus on children’s attainment, is BASED on quality play. If this is the case then children WILL achieve. If it is not then they won’t.

Transition

It still bemuses me that some teachers think that if a child leaves a play based Reception class, then has six weeks away from school and then returns to long carpet sessions and worksheets that this isn’t going to affect their attainment. Of course it will.

When working on transition with one school this year, the Year One teacher was heard to say 'You needn't bother coming to me, I don't believe in all of your hocus pocus. I have got work to do!' Classic!

The more comfortable the child the more open to learning they will be. If you are spending all of your time worrying about what is happening next and where you line up then you are not going to be embracing the finer elements of the taught curriculum.

A good transition policy supports not only then children but also the staff, making sure that everyone is aware of what procedures are in place and why. Transition should be a time to consolidate prior learning after a long break and then take it forward. It is not a time to stagnate or slip backwards.

Stagnation and Slippage (but you said we had to have Continuous Provision in Year One!)

‘It says in our transition policy that Continuous Provision will be continued for at least the first term in Year One.’

As is indicated by its title, Continuous Provision (CP) continues to provide specific opportunities for learning outside of an adult focus activity.

It doesn’t just happen by chance and is not a collection of ‘nice’ resources from the stock cupboard.

Each area of CP is planned based on accurate information from the children’s last assessment

Within each area resources are chosen that specifically meet the needs identified by assessment. Any practitioner should be able to go into each area of their CP and talk about why specific resources are there, where the assessment is that identified the need and who exactly the target group is for that resource.

Future observation and assessment should show how that resource has had impact on learning with evidence of children moving forward. Use this method of planning for CP to give a focus for obs/assessment.

You can have the best resources in the world but the real skill with CP is to get the children to use the resources you have put there for them. The single best way to do this is to ‘dress’ the resources in the interests of the ‘target’ group. So if it needs to be Ben 10, Ben 10 it is.

You cannot guarantee what a child will do with a resource when you are not there to guide their learning but what good CP allows you to do is;

maximise the potential for learning and minimise the risk of failure.

In exactly the same way I could send all of the children off to a table with a differentiated worksheet. I would work with one group and guide them in their completion of the task – but I couldn’t guarantee how the others would complete their sheet or how engaged they would be by a piece of A4 paper!

So if you are in Year One (or Reception) and you have set up a number of unplanned areas for children to play in (often when they have finished their work) then this is NOT Continuous Provision and any impact that this play has on attainment will be by chance. These children run the risk of stagnating.

When it is done well CP works because it delivers learning to children when they are at their most engaged, regardless of their ability level. Be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that CP in Year One is only for the immature and less able. If that is the case then what we are looking at is badly planned provision.

Planning

My own personal mantra for this one is:

‘Stage of development not age of child’

It sounds great and works well, but needs some context. In Year One children all have a legal entitlement to the National Curriculum but not all children are ready for it. This is why we have the National Curriculum level W to show that children are ‘working towards’.

My issue with the level ‘W’ across the curriculum is that it is very narrow and not particularly helpful when it comes to next steps and breath. In that respect the EYFS curriculum is much better suited to the needs of children judged to be at this level.

But legally these children are not EYFS any longer and many assessment packages do not recognise FSP levels once children have entered Year One. Some schools put lower performing children onto ‘P Scales’ on entry to Year One. It is worth pointing out here that P Scales are intended for children with SEN. If the child is not been identified as SEN then P Scales are not appropriate.

There is also no magic formula for moving children from Profile to National Curriculum. All children cannot be a Point 6 or above in everything by the end of Reception. Nor will a Point 6 CLL equate to a 2B writer or a point 9 PSRN equate to a level 3 in maths by the end of Key Stage One. As much as some people want it to work like that. IT DOESN’T!

These are a couple of slides that were produced as part of a National Strategies training power point in 2010. They are based on the actual Profile to End of Key Stage One data of all children nationally. A full copy of the power point is available below.

If your tracking system does not recognise Profile Points when children move into Year One then I would urge you to keep a separate record of attainment otherwise you run the risk of looking like some of your children have not moved on at all.

Good transitional planning needs to allow for National Curriculum attainment as well as some FSP attainment. If you are planning to a ‘topic’ approach based on National Curriculum programmes of study this makes life much more difficult. It will cause you great brain ache to get elements of KUW to fit into a Geography POS!

My answer is to move away from the ‘topic’ approach completely and create your own theme in September which will be based on the children you have got in front of you.

Assessment – This tells you where next in every area for every child

Practitioner Knowledge - (PLODs)– This is where you plan the next steps needed to fill the gaps identified by the assessment. You show this in your planning for adult focused activities, resources and environment. In this stage of the planning process you would also include any major events, seasons, celebrations that are going to feature in the children’s lives over the period of the theme.

Children’s Interests - The ‘best bit’. You know what skills you are going to have to teach. You want maximum engagement from the children so you let their interests shape the theme title. Some of the coverage will be exactly the same as before, it will just look different.

You then pick NC objectives and FSP points that fit into your theme making sure they demonstrate progress and attainment. I have posted an example of a ‘theme’ planner here... Download Child Initiated Planner - 2003

Timetable

I am often asked if I can provide an example of a timetable that will show what an day in Year One should look like in the first term. The problem is that there is no one answer. It very much depends on what ethos is in place.

I was looking at the website of Reflections Day Nursery today and they talked about‘the rhythm of the day’ and I liked the idea that in any setting the day had a regular pattern but that nothing was set in stone.

image from Reflections Nursery

There will be all sorts of outside restrictions to your timetable like hall time, play time, assembly etc. Within the time that you have got some control over you just need to make sure that you can show that the children are learning and making good progress. That you have systems in place that allow you to show that progress and that all of the opportunities you offer, however play based they may be, are not only encouraging exploration and discovery but are also underpinned by quality assessment, high level engagement and rigour.

There are lots of planning formats out there, especially on the TES forum. It is really good to have a look at a few and then devise one that fits YOUR school. If you have any cross phase planning formats that work for you, send them to me and I will upload them for all to share.

To start the ball rolling I have posted a few from Durham LA. In all of my searching these come up a lot. I have never used them and am not advocating them as ‘best’. They are just there to help you to get going. You will find them here.

04/07/2011

Monday I was delivering outdoor training to a group of Nursery and Children's Centre practitioners

Tuesday it was 'How to Look Good Naked' to a variety of practitioners from Nechells Eduaction Action Zone in Birmingham.

Wednesday, off to Coventry to work with the lovely ladies from St Osburg's Primary

Thursday back to Salford to train TA's while the teachers were on strike...

Then Friday was the ABC Does... conference in Manchester. I was very excited!

I REALLY enjoyed my day and from the feedback sheets, the delegates seemed to feel the same. It did take me until about Sunday afternoon to recover - it was that sort of conference!

To be honest I could have done with another 2 hours to fit in everything I wanted to say but as the delegates from Glasgow, London, Sheffield and other far flung places (like...Speke!) had to to catch their trains, so I had to let them out.

We packed in LOADS from the best environment, to assessment, planning, child led learning, boys, fundamentals of early reading and writing, outdoor and the value of a good point of entry assessment. Oh, and a bit of lunch and some community signing thrown in!

(it is just a little bit cheesy - but I love the sentiment)

Speaking of Point of Entry Assessments...I am doing a project with a group of schools who are looking to make an accurate statement of social and academic attainment on entry to Nursery and Reception (until Profile assessment kicks in). There are lots out there and I have been working my way through as many of them as I can find.

The one I have found that I really like because I think it ticks the most boxes so far is 'Flying from the Start' by Durham LA

If you have a look at http://eyfs.durhamlea.org.uk there are more details plus a FAQ section that explains it in more details.

20/06/2011

Grrr! I have already written this post once and then with the click of a button...it disappeared. How does that happen? Where do they go? Anyway, for the second time...

I had planned to do my short term planning blog today but got an email about moderation of Profile Points that I thought you might like to share. I know this is the time of year when you all gather up your evidence and go off to moderation meetings, panicking that you haven't got enough!

There is still an 'urban myth' going around that you still need to have 3 examples of evidence for every profile point for every child. When I talk to practitioners they often quote this at me,when I talk to moderators they all tell me that it is rubbish! There is no hard and fast rule for how much you need you just need to show clearly that you know your onions when it comes to assessment!

Moderation is ESSENTIAL to effective EYFS progress and attainment. It is something that should be on your staff meeting agenda regularly so that staff get to know those points inside out.

One other really good way of ensuring that your team make similar judgements and that you can demonstrate how effective your assessment is is to create 6 moderation portfolios. One for each of the areas of learning.

These portfolios take time to produce. Setting them up takes team discussion and agreement. They also need regular review which is great for training.

The process is simple:

You have one file for each 'Area of Learning'

For each profile point 1- 9, you provide 3 examples of activities (including photos) that demonstrate what you (and your team) think constitutes secure attainment of this point.

As a point 4 in KUW is a point 4 regardless of the cohort,you can add to/amend your portfolio every year.

Not only do these files show how accurate your judgements are they also give the reader a brilliant overview of the sort of activities and learning experiences you offer your children.

Blackpool LA have a set of these files that are a culmination of the evidence that practitioners bring to moderation meetings. Anyone can go and look at it and use it for training.

A few of the schools that I have worked with in Blackpool are setting their own individual ones, including Claire at Claremont Primary.

She sent me this entry for one of her files as I am in it!

It is a KUW example for points 5 and 7

Knowledge and Understanding of the World

Context

As part of the Blackpool Schools Creativity project, Alistair Bryce-Clegg had visited school with 2 ducklings. The children were all very excited and observing and using a flip camera to record the ducklings in the water tray throughout the morning, asking lots of questions about what they were called? Why one was bigger than the other? Etc. Alistair talked about their feet and their wings and the fact that their feathers were waterproof because they had oil on them.

In the afternoon we had ‘speaking and listening’ time and the children were asked to re call some of the information they had learnt that morning. The fact that the duckling’s feathers were waterproof became the main topic of discussion and ‘why are they waterproof?’

We talked about oil and water not going together and the teacher demonstrated with a clear plastic bottle containing oil and water, shaking it up then watching it separate again. The learning was further extended with digital timers being introduced to the children and they timed how long it would take for the water and oil to separate.

FSP Point 5- Asks questions about why things happen and how things work, looks closely at similarities and differences, patterns and change.

Around 6 children independently accessed this activity for the majority of the afternoon and although the timing was not always accurate the children followed the process and used appropriate vocabulary.

FSP – Point 7-Finds out about and identifies the uses of everyday technology and uses information and communication technology and programmable toys to support his/her learning.

If anyone has any other examples of how they moderate or anything else they would like to share then please feel free to do so!

Alistair enjoyed a successful 10 year career as the Head Teacher of three-form entry Infant School and Early Years Unit in Cheshire. Alongside his headship he established a successful consultancy career specialising in the education of children in the Early Years. Find out more information about Alistair's consultancy portfolio at abcdoes.com